His staff — my comfort

My brief experience with sheep explains why they are often used as a metaphor for God’s people. Sheep scare easily, seem to act without thinking (do they even think?), and require constant and watchful care.

In Psalm 23, David says the Lord is his shepherd. Further along, he says, “Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”

The shepherd used his rod to correct the sheep and his staff to move them in the right direction. These instruments worked far better than if he used his hands or something bigger to shoo them and send them into a frightened frenzy. David, himself a shepherd, knew the correcting and directing power of a rod and staff. He also knew that God used exactly the right situations to guide and correct him. God’s care was always suited to his temperament and his needs.

Yesterday I read about Jacob wrestling with God. Even though a winner was not declared, Jacob came out of it with a limp and a different attitude. For him, and for the rest of the flock of God, such a wrestling match proves that we are like crippled, even dysfunctional, sheep who need the correction and guidance of the Lord.

Today, my Scripture reading is still about Jacob. Hebrews 11:21 says, “By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff.”

This tells me two more things about Jacob that are helpful for my own life. First, he never stopped needing his ‘crutch.’ He had a staff to lean on, but not only that, into his old age this man also worshiped God. Only those who are humbly depending on Him can do that.

Second, he learned the same thing as David; the staff of God was a blessing. When God encountered him many years prior, He gave this stubborn, self-seeking man a lesson in guidance. Later, as he neared the end of his life and it was time to bless his grandsons, he was still relying on what God told him to do. Genesis 48 tells how, instead of going with tradition and blessing the eldest first and with the most, Jacob reversed that. Even when Joseph tried to correct him, he insisted and gave the greater blessing to the younger one. He had learned to listen to God, not tradition or human advice.

No one knows when they are near the end of their life, but right now is a good time to start the attitudes and life that I want to be characterized by when I am very old. Like Jacob, I know that I limp. I need both rod and staff to correct and direct me, but also to lean on, rely on that care from the Lord. I don’t want to get caught in the trap of following tradition, nor do I want to rely on people to tell me what to do.

My mother and father both succumbed to dementia as they aged. However I could see that they, particularly my mother, still heard the voice of the Lord. They allowed His rod and His staff to correct and guide them. His care was their comfort. By forming this spiritual discipline of being disciplined, the weaknesses of aging (which is the final form of ‘limping’ and needing a crutch) became their testimony to the grace of God.

I still fight my unwillingness to be weak or admit weakness, but this wrestling match cannot be won. Weaknesses will win—unless I learn the lesson of Jacob and David. The Lord’s rod and His staff, even though His use of them may not feel good all the time, eventually will become my comfort and just one more reason to worship Him.